Who is Vitor Pereira & What Will he Bring to Everton?

Following the sacking of Rafael Benitez from Goodison Park after the Toffees’ 2-1 loss against relegation battling Norwich City at Carrow Road on January 15th, Everton are on the lookout for a new manager to lead their project forward.

Duncan Ferguson has been linked with the job, but, having seen his side beaten 1-0 by Aston Villa last weekend, the Scot seemingly hasn’t enhanced his chances to be the manager of the Blues, as his Interim record now stands at one win in five matches.

53-year-old Portuguese manager Vitor Pereira has been linked with the job at Goodison Park and is now the bookmakers favourite ahead of the likes of Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney due to his vast amounts of experience. Former Toffees boss Roberto Martinez was the initial favourite but wasn't granted permission to do the Everton job side by side with his role with the Belgium National Team.

Pereira will come as a fairly unknown name to many fans in England, as he is yet to manage a club in Europe’s stereotypical top five leagues, known as the Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Serie A or La Liga, the Portuguese coach has, however, managed the likes of FC Porto, Olympiacos and Fenerbahce, so does have a good pedigree for this job.

In his time at FC Porto between 2011 and 2013, the 53-year-old won the first major honours of his managerial career when he guided his team to back to back Primeira Liga titles, as well as two Supertaca Candido de Oliveira’s. Pereira had a successful time at the Liga NOS outfit, managing a staggering win percentage of 69.89% which is his best to date. Prior to his move to the Estadio do Dragao, he had managed the likes of Sanjoanese, Espinho and Santa Clara

Following his time in his homeland, he actually had an interview to become Everton’s manager following the departure of David Moyes to Manchester United, but, chose to sign for Al Ahli, before exiting the Saudi Arabian side in less than 12 months having been runners-up in the Saudi Cup to join Greek giants Olympiacos for six months, where he would be successful in guiding them to a Super League Greek title and a Greek Football League Cup in the 2014/15 campaign.

Pereira and Olympiacos parted ways following his double success, mutually terminating the Portuguese manager’s contract so that he could join Fenerbahce where he would go on to have two spells, firstly between June 2015 and August 2016 where he had a 61% win percentage and most recently in July 2021 until December where he was sacked by the club for a second time having won just 11 of his 25 games in charge.

The former Porto man had an unsuccessful spell at 1860 Munich just after his first time in charge at Fener, seeing the German club be relegated from Bundesliga 2 in 2016/17 via the play-offs following a 16th placed finish, with the Portuguese coach leading them to just six wins in 20 matches. After his shortcoming in Germany, he did go on to manage in China for three years from December 2017 up until December 2021 where he managed to win the Chinese Super League in 2018, as well as the Chinese Super Cup just one year later, these trophies remain as the club’s only top-flight honours.

Pereira’s style of play may come as an unlikely advantage for the Goodison Park club, as in one of his most recent spells as manager of Shanghai SIPG, he utilised formations such as 3-4-2-1 and 3-5-2, something which the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benitez used in their times in charge of Everton, meaning that there will be familiarities in the setups.

The Portuguese manager likes his team to be fluid in possession of the ball and have high-quality ball-playing centre backs who step into the midfield to help create overloads in possession, similarly to Sheffield United’s style under Chris Wilder. Pereira’s system also allows the full-backs to stay high up the pitch in possession of the ball, effectively pinning the opposition into their own half of the pitch.

A player who helped the Portuguese manager’s side tick in China is former Chelsea man Oscar whose positioning allowed tactical fluidity in-game, seeing Shanghai SIPG rotate between 3-4-1-2 and 3-5-2 as the Brazilian tended to drop deeper in the midfield to link up play going forward.

Pereira has a good eye for talent, as in his time at FC Porto, he signed up the likes of Juventus full-backs Danilo and Alex Sandro, as well as Jackson Martinez, Steven Defour, Elaqium Mangala, whilst at Fenerbahce, he attracted some high reputation players to the club in the shapes of Simon Kjaer, Martin Skrtel, Nani, Robin van Persie and more showing that he has good negotiation skills.

The Portuguese manager also managed to work some more transfer magic in his time at Shanghai SIPG, as the 53-year-old persuaded the likes of Marko Arnautovic and Aaron Mooy to move to the Chinese Super League.
When looking at Pereira’s signings, key players such as Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Mykola Mykolenko will certainly fit into his system, as will Everton’s array of industrial midfielders such as Andre Gomes and Allan. Something that Pereira will likely look for if he is appointed as Everton manager is a central attacking midfielder to help to dictate his side’s play.

The Toffees are without a player who can naturally play in this role, with Alex Iwobi possibly being their only option, however, with the Nigeria international failing to impress since his move to Everton from Arsenal back in the summer of 2019, there is much debate as to who they should sign to support their attack.

Donny van de Beek is a player that has been linked with a loan move to Everton, of which the Dutchman would likely fit in well. In his time at Old Trafford he has shown glimpses of his quality, but, having played just 380 minutes this season, there is a chance that he could leave the Red Devils in the near future and the Toffees are the favourites to sign him at 7/2.

Meanwhile, another player who could fit the mould at Goodison Park is Dele Alli who has accumulated just 1,042 minutes across all competitions this campaign. The 25-year-old who has 37 caps for England has struggled in recent seasons and could possibly do with a move away from Spurs to revitalise his career which has stalled since he managed 14 goals and 17 assists in the 2017/18 campaign.